DAVAO CITY -- A judge in Davao City said he already issued a certification from court last week for the extradition of an American national who nearly died when a bomb exploded in his hotel room on May 16, 2002. | A blast from the past, as it were. |
Regional Trial Court Branch 13 Judge Isaac Robillo said he issued the certification upon the request of the City Prosecutor's Office (CPO), saying the case against Michael Terrence Meiring was shelved in 2003 yet. Robillo said the court certification for the extradition should have been issued before because two years had already been passed.
Meiring, who is facing a complaint for illegal possession of ammunition and reckless imprudence resulting in damage to property, is facing charges before Robillo's sala. | Had a "work accident", did he? |
Mayor Rodrigo Duterte earlier said the American should also be charged with arson for burning a portion of the hotel.
Meiring was spirited out of his hospital room on May 19, 2002, three days after the explosion, by what Duterte referred to as "arrogant" agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone earlier said they received a letter from Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez informing them about the charges filed against Meiring. But until January this year, Ricciardone said the charges against Meiring were never communicated with them on an official basis. The ambassador said as far as they knew, at the time Meiring was taken out of the Davao Doctors Hospital and transferred to a Manila hospital, there were no criminal charges filed against him. Ricardionne said if charges had been filed against Meiring, they would have ensured that he faced these. Robillo issued a warrant of arrest against Meiring on June 13, 2002 and fixed the bail bond at P80,000. A hold-departure order was also issued, but by then, Meiring was already out of the country. | You may ask, "Who is Michael Terrence Meiring? In another story: While the Arroyo government and the military are associating these bombings with the Moro rebellion in Sulu, we see that the series of explosions in Mindanao since 2002 point to a larger design--- setting the stage for the entry of US troops and justifying American military intervention in Southern Philippines. The spate of recent bombings have further corroborated the findings of the citizen-led Independent Fact Finding Mission on the 4 March 2003 and 2 April 2003 blasts.The fact-finding mission called attention to the self-inflicted explosion suffered by Central Intelligence Agency agent Michael Terrence Meiring in a Davao City hotel on 16 May 2002. Meiring was quoted by a media source to have said that a "big explosion" would happen in Mindanao with the onset of Balikatan exercises in the country. He was spirited out of the country reportedly by a US government plane with US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents as escorts. Despite repeated calls for his extradition to face criminal charges in Philippine courts, Meiring continues to be coddled by the US government. See, it's a deep laid plot to destablize the Philippines so we can take over, again. |
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